Medical, dental, pharmaceutical, veterinary or mortuary instruments and devices, are routinely exposed to blood or other body fluids during medical procedures. Following such procedures, a thorough cleaning and anti-microbial deactivation of the instruments is required before subsequent use. Liquid microbial deactivation systems are now widely used to clean and deactivate instruments that cannot withstand the high temperature of a steam deactivation system. Liquid microbial deactivation systems typically operate by exposing the instruments to a liquid deactivation fluid, such as peracetic acid or some other strong oxidant. In such systems, the instruments to be cleaned are typically placed in a container that is put inside a decontamination chamber of the deactivation system. During a deactivation cycle, liquid microbial deactivation fluid is circulated through the decontamination chamber and the container therein. It should be understood that the term “instrument,” as used herein, includes, but is not limited to, articles, such as medical, dental, pharmaceutical, veterinary and mortuary instruments and devices.
In many existing liquid microbial deactivation systems, one or more conduits having respective connectors are directly connected to ports of a lumened instrument (e.g., an endoscope) in order to flow liquid microbial deactivation fluid therethrough. In this regard, liquid microbial deactivation fluid is pumped through the conduits, thereby flowing through internal pathways/passages of the lumened instrument to effect microbial deactivation therein. One drawback to this approach is that the proper connectors must be identified and selected for connection with the ports of the lumened instrument. Another drawback to this approach is that it can be difficult to put liquid microbial deactivation fluid in contact with the external surfaces of the lumened instrument that are engaged with the connectors.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing drawbacks, and provides an instrument container having multiple chambers with flow pathways therebetween.